By NASSER SHARIF | Orange County Register
PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:
Amidst talk of Iran’s violations of the nuclear deal, a resolution was introduced in the U.S. Congress, censuring the Tehran regime for the mass murder of thousands of dissidents in 1988. The massacre claimed the lives of an estimated 30,000 prisoners of conscience, mostly activists of the leading Iranian opposition movement, the People’sOrganization of Iran.
One of the worst political massacres of the 20th century, the killings were largely met with silence by the international community. Secrecy was reinforced for several decades by a conspiracy of silence orchestrated by the clerical regime. So, despite the tremendous human cost, the episode effectively went unacknowledged. Any call in Iran for an investigation was severely punished.
This all changed last year when an audio recording surfaced, in which the late Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri is heard condemning his colleagues over their participation in what he described as “the greatest crime of the Islamic Republic.” At that time, Montazeri was the second highest official in Iran, heir apparent to Khomeini. He was later demoted for his dissenting views.
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